arXiv Machine Learning

Large-scale bioacoustic detection using semantic segmentation: a deep learning framework applied to fin whale calls in ocean-bottom seismometer recordings

arXiv AI
Jun 12

GetNetUPAM: Ecologically Informed Nested Cross-Validation and Noise-Robust Attention for Marine Bioacoustic Monitoring

arXiv:2509. 04682v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Deploying reliable bioacoustic monitoring systems requires models that generalize under high-noise, low-SNR conditions and evaluation protocols that expose deployment-relevant failure modes, gaps largely unaddressed in current UPAM practice.

By Nicholas R. Rasmussen, Rodrigue Rizk, Longwei Wang, KC Santosh
arXiv Computer Vision
Sep 3

Efficient Passive Acoustic Monitoring of Killer Whales Using a Two-Stage Detection and Ecotype Classification Cascade

The paper presents a lightweight ResNet-based two-stage cascade for passive acoustic monitoring of killer whales. First, it detects vocalizations, then it classifies confident detections into five eastern North Pacific ecotypes, abstaining on ambiguous calls. The pipeline achieves high macro‑F1 scores on the DCLDE 2027 dataset and improves real‑time inference speed, while active learning adapts the detector to new acoustic environments.

By Daniela Ruiz, Manuel Castellote, Zhongqi Miao, Carl Chalmers, Bruno Demuro, Rahul Dodhia, Pablo Arbelaez, Juan M. Lavista
Hugging Face Trending Papers
Jul 15

MetaPerch: Learning from metadata for bioacoustics foundation models

Bioacoustic foundation models rely on large-scale citizen science platforms like Xeno-Canto for geographically and ecologically diverse data. Recent work has shown that supervision alone can produce SotA species detection models when trained on this large-scale data -- however, there remains unutilized potential in the form of recording metadata readily available within these community-driven data hubs.

arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 24

Active Learning for Biodiversity Monitoring: From Label Efficiency to Reliable Ecological Inference

The paper discusses how active learning (AL) can alleviate the expert annotation bottleneck in biodiversity monitoring by selecting the most informative samples under a fixed budget. It highlights that while AL reduces labeling effort, its non-random sample selection complicates model validation, calibration, and ecological inference, issues often overlooked in current studies. The authors review existing AL research across acoustic and image data, identify gaps such as limited species coverage and lack of real-world deployments, and propose a tutorial framework and roadmap for developing AL methods that support efficient training, reliable validation, and trustworthy ecological conclusions.

By Ben McEwen, Shiqi Zhang, Dan Stowell
arXiv Statistics ML
Aug 31

A Deep Zero-Inflated Model of North Atlantic Right Whale Presence To Support Blue Economy Management in the U.S. East Coast

The paper introduces the Deep Zero-Inflated Bernoulli (DeepZIB) model, a deep statistical framework that jointly estimates latent North Atlantic Right Whale presence and detection probabilities from passive acoustic monitoring data. It addresses challenges such as zero inflation, imperfect detection, and complex habitat dependencies, and demonstrates improved predictive performance and model adequacy through simulations and real-world application along the U.S. East Coast. The model produces high-resolution, spatiotemporal presence maps that can inform targeted, risk-aware management of blue economy activities.

By Jiaxiang Ji, Laura Nazzaro, Ahmed Aziz Ezzat
arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 26

Weakly Supervised Seafloor Segmentation for Seagrass Habitat Mapping in Side-Scan Sonar Imagery

The paper presents a weakly supervised semantic segmentation approach for mapping seagrass habitats using side‑scan sonar imagery. By training a ViT‑based encoder‑decoder with image‑level labels, class activation maps are refined into pseudo‑labels and iteratively self‑trained, achieving high mean intersection‑over‑union scores (up to 89.3 %) without pixel‑level annotations. The method also benefits from self‑supervised pretraining and demonstrates generalizability in field trials.

By Hayat Rajani, Nuno Gracias, Rafael Garcia